To Characterize Myself

By: Rachel Laughlin

For me, writing began as a form of self-expression. I had ideas trapped inside my head, and to give them life I started writing them down. Gradually, my innocent stories began to take on more mature underlying themes, especially as I grew older and began to struggle with real-life complexities and uncertainties. The characters in my stories came to reflect how I chose to interpret and handle such things.

Now that I am older, I like to think I’ve evolved into writing for the expression of ideas and facts, demonstrated in the various assignments I now complete, such as lab reports and journalistic articles. While I still retain some forms of self-expression, I usually cloak it in poetry, as seen in this poem I produced last year, entitled Characterization. This poem describes the unconscious purpose my characters have come to serve.

While my writing began as a form of self-expression, it has aged into an expression of ideas, both of others and my own. I write to solve puzzles, personal mysteries, and communicate with the people around me. That is why I write.

 

Characterization

By: Rachel Laughlin

Perfection is her middle name,

She is an extension of myself.

Every action, every spoken word, performed impeccably

Surfacing no tremors, despite the torrents inside.

A master in acrobatics, her form leaps and turns,

Flips and tumbles to a landing.

Her hands are in perfect, strengthened fists when not in use

And when outstretched, are taut and unforgiving.

She is a force to be reckoned with, but not so intimidating

As the force of the pressure she imposes on herself.

I cannot even think to ask her any question,

As I know her like I know myself.

And therefore know every possible answer.

My objects of original creation are my mirrors, with every sculpt, every thought, a parable of my own.

If any, it would be a question I would ask of myself.

“Why do you do this?”

She perhaps, would reply, “Because I must.”

Another may speak “It is my duty. It is my punishment. It is my redemption.”

The first is born of militant duty,

The second, an extension of noble guilt.

But more importantly, when I answer my own question, I simply receive another

“What else is there?”

My parodies of me, my able perfectionists in a perfect world,

My creations of thought,

As each of them represents a facet of me,

So do they represent a facet of an ambiguous answer.